Oakland University has officially accepted Horizon League's membership offer, Tuesday, as it offers them better recruiting options, competitive rivalries and reduced travel time.

The university will be leaving its former 'Summit League.'

"Oakland University is pleased to be the newest member of the Horizon League," Oakland President Gary Russi said. "The universities in this conference are strong academically and they value the student-athlete experience. Oakland fits well with them and we look forward to being part of their tradition of excellence."

The Golden Grizzlies will be joining Horizon, effective July 1, in time for the 2013-14 academic year. They will compete in all 18 of its intercollegiate sports.

With the inclusion of Oakland, the Horizon will now comprise of nine members including Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Illinois-Chicago, Valparaiso, Wright State and Youngstown State.

This membership was made possible after Horizon's former member Loyola (Ill.) joined the Missouri Valley Conference, starting this year, thereby creating a vacancy.

Sometime soon, the university will have to pay $250,000 to leave the Summit and $882,000 to enter the Horizon.

"I think they are a good fit,'' CSU athletic director John Parry said. "I know they are competitive. Over the years they have had some good basketball. They bring a level of success in a number of sports. I feel good about it.''

Oakland always desired to join the Horizon League, but its new fellow member Detroit was not in favour of their proposal as it didn't want to be a part of the league with another Detroit school. Former Detroit athletic director Brad Kinsman is unsure whether Detroit still carried the same attitude.

The Grizzlies have an interesting NCAA Division I (DI) basketball history, being the only member in Horizon to have more NCAA appearances. Since its relationship with DI in 1997-98, so far grizzles have made three NCAA appearances in 2005, 2010 and 2011, when compared to Cleveland State's two appearances.

So far, they have had four 20-win seasons and been one of the Summit League's top men's basketball programs.